Travelling 22 countries since 1999 I have been on a journey assisting people in their meditation, prayer, and spiritual life.
The goal is to unite people with their inner self through the use of malas. A mala is useful as it helps focus the mind and develop clarity and stability of the mind.
The focus of this business is on love, compassion, and sustainable existence in the every changing world.
People often ask how I became a mala maker. As the now legend goes (which is entirely true) ...
I lived in South Korea teaching English and visiting temples in Rural Korea every weekend on my motorcycle. I would collect bracelets from there as a means of donating to the temples as well as having some symbol of the adventure.
I returned to Canada in 2004 to complete my university degree through Athabasca University majoring in Int’l Business Management. By 2005, I had moved to Saltspring Island, BC for a change and began selling bracelets in the market because I couldn’t find what I was so fond of in Korea.
One day a Swami friend of mine came to me and said "Why don't you make malas?" and within three months I found myself sitting in Bodhgaya, India (the place where Buddha obtained enlightenment) learning from a third generation mala maker whose grandfather was the first mala maker in Bodhgaya.
I often tell the story of my favourite picture in his shop of the Dalai Lama bowing to my teacher’s grandfather with many men in a circle laughing and smiling a way. The mala maker as humble as ever, beautiful. Since 2006 this has been my full time occupation with no means of income anywhere else, a grace filled life indeed. And with this grace a responsibility to give back and I am doing my best to help inspire people to develop a practice and look within for the answers.
It is an honour to serve the West through this craft. In the winters you will often find that I have left the shop to India/Nepal and other countries on my own personal pilgrimage to continue my sadhana in solitude.
During these times my assistant, Catherine (seen basking in the sun on a beautiful British Columbia day), ships all the malas off the site while responding to all emails and putting people on the waiting list for their custom mala.
Once I connect to the internet I complete the custom work. If I am in Bodhgaya than your order will be there otherwise they are completed upon return to the shop here on Saltspring Island, BC CANADA.
Money from the sale of malas goes to sustaining my life in the West, as well as travelling in the winter months both on pilgrimage and collecting supplies, and sending money to friends overseas that I have hired as buyers. As the funds increase we will begin expanding into rural locations in Nepal and educating locals on water catchment, purification and safe measures of gathering water – it is a mission of Destination OM’s to help offer resources to rural communities that are in desperate need of an ability to gather water in simpler ways.
The newest advancement is that these rural locations in North-East and North-West have begun picking specific seeds for us to use in malas. Guided by the medicine woman’s Guru we are educated in WHAT to USE for WHAT purpose and as this advances we will offer the malas and education to everyone through DestinationOM.
Blessings and thank you for your interest,
Gaurang B. McIntyre
